building a stylish home, one paycheck at a time

April 28, 2016April 28, 2016

Current project: renting the duplex

We try to make this a happy project, but it was the house of my father-in-law who is recently no longer with us. He left us a duplex in the Portland area. He lived in one side and rented out the other side. About 15 years ago, Bryce and his dad worked on bringing the rental apartment out of the 60’s so they could rent it to people without making them suffer the avocado shag carpeting. On the side Buck (Bryce’s dad) lived in, there’s still avocado shag carpeting.

It’s not an easy project. This side of the duplex is a bit easier. We are trying to spiff it up enough to rent it out for a decent price to raise some funds that will go into the bigger renovation on Buck’s side. So we are taking baby steps with doing work on weekends here and there to get this side going before tackling the big project of going through Buck’s side.

Here’s what we have to work with.

Before: eating area – we were able to remove the panelingBefore: living room and eating area – we are removing the panelingBefore: living roomBefore: kitchenBefore: other side of living roomBefore: bedroom closetBefore: bedroomBefore: bedroomBefore: bedroomBefore: hall closetBefore: bathroom

It’s a 2 bedroom 1 bathroom apartment on each side of the duplex. I think each side is about 700+ square feet. We have replaced the baseboard heaters and the electrical plugs. They were still the 2 prong plug outlets from the 50’s! Now you can plug in your hairdryer or a computer.

Next we are painting and then replacing some fixtures then putting it up for rent.